Image credit:
(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Fanatics)
For baseball card and collectibles fans planning ahead, you might want to block the last two weeks of next July (into early August) on your calendar.
It had already been announced that the National, the biggest convention of the year, will be taking place in Chicago from July 29 through Aug. 2. Now, Fanatics has confirmed rumors that the third-annual Fanatics Fest will be taking place weeks prior at the Javits Center in New York from July 16-19 in what is an expansion of the event from three to four days for 2026.
This year’s Fanatics Fest, which drew more than 100,000 fans across three days, took place in June—more than a month before the National. It’s rumored that the 2026 Fanatics Fest was pushed back to coincide with the World Cup soccer event, the final of which will be held at MetLife Stadium in nearby New Jersey on July 19. The July dates for Fanatics Fest not only will allow more high-profile soccer guests to appear, but will also mean a large contingent of sports fans visiting from around the world will be able to attend.
Proximity to soccer notwithstanding, the event also features a huge baseball presence. Last year’s event included autograph guests such as Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols and Mike Schmidt.
Fanatics, which owns the Topps baseball card company, says the event will feature more than 250 vendors and athletes guests from across all major sports, plus trading nights, interactive activities and more.
The two previous versions of Fanatics Fest have also offered event-exclusive trading card products. The inaugural event in 2024 featured a Fanatics Fest version of 2024 Topps Chrome, and this year’s event offered an exclusive Fanatics Fest version of 2025 Topps Series 2.
Fanatics says tickets for Fanatics Fest will go on sale this November.
Discover more from 6up.net
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.